If you've used the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 you'll have had a sneak peek of the Photos app in the new operating system. But Microsoft has just announced what else is set to roll out come the official launch so, without further ado, here's how photos work in Windows 8.

First off the Metro UI can be used to provide a four-column view of images. What's nice about that is the fact that it can be used to combine local images, as well as those from Facebook, Flickr and SkyDrive. Neat.

Perhaps the nicest feature, though, is the option to automatically archive all your images to SkyDrive from all your devices. The idea is that all your devices will sync photos to the cloud without your intervention, so that you can access them anywhere, without having to mess around each time you need to find something. It will also work from non-Windows 8 devices, as long as you install the SkyDrive app on said device.

Elsewhere, there are some big improvements to the way photos are imported—the process is much more slick than ever before in Windows—and the ability to share images has been massively streamlined. All in, it's going to feel a lot more like the way your phone handles images, which is great. If you want to know more, Microsoft has a detailed run down of the improvements on its blog. [Microsoft]